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Origin and history

The chapel of the White Penitents of Beuil, located Church Square in the Alpes-Maritimes, was built in 1630 on the site of an earlier building. It housed the confraternity of Gonfalon and Mercy, also known as the confraternity of the White Penitents, dedicated to the Holy Cross. This religious group had 149 members in 1808 (84 brothers and 65 sisters), but disappeared before World War I. After serving as a municipal depot, the chapel gradually deteriorated.

Starting in 1980, restoration campaigns were launched to save the building, notably by putting it out of water. In 1984, the facade was decorated with a pseudo-baroque trompe l'oeil decor by artist Guy Ceppa. That same year, on 6 December, the chapel was listed as historical monuments. Its simple, rectangular three-span architecture hides an attic above the nave, formerly used to store grain purchased by the members of the brotherhood, redistributed to the poor or the affected peasants.

The monument illustrates the social role of religious brotherhoods in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, combining devotion and community assistance. Its history also reflects the challenges of preserving rural heritage, marked by periods of abandonment followed by late restorations. Today, the chapel remains a testimony of religious architecture and charitable practices of the early eighteenth century in the Alpes-Maritimes.

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